Stories of Vince McMahon making last-minute changes to WWE plans that will have even been in place for quite a while are infamous, so when Chris Jericho had an idea for what he now calls one in all his all-time favorite “WWE Raw” moments, it’s reasonable to imagine that he could have been leery of a final minute pivot from the then-Chairman and CEO. 2017’s “Festival of Friendship” ended Jericho’s run as “best friends” with Kevin Owens—and did so in grand fashion as Owens turned on Jericho and beat him down in a show of chaotic violence.
While the segment included nearly all the pieces Jericho imagined from the beginning, McMahon would insist on a sculpture being within the ring, for whatever reason, and Jericho wasn’t about to let that get in the way in which. “There was a statue cause Vince insisted there needed to be a sculpture within the ring,” Jericho told “Busted Open Radio.” “That was his only thing. ‘There needs to be a sculpture within the ring.'” Undeterred and, in recalling the moment, almost sounding relieved that this was all McMahon wanted, Jericho added, “‘Okay,’ so we put a sculpture within the ring.”
For all of it to remain as true to the unique vision because it did turned out great for Jericho and Owens and the segment remains to be remembered fondly to today. Jericho even threw in a callback to a Michelangelo-style painting from the bit in a segment with Don Callis on “AEW Dynamite” years later. After all, in wrestling, not much ever ends perfectly, and though McMahon initially said the feud would end because the most important event at WrestleMania 33, with Jericho winning the world title from Owens, as a substitute, it went on second because of a trademark pivot.”[WrestleMania] was gonna be the night where I won the title as a babyface [but] Vince modified his mind to doing Brock [Lesnar] versus Goldberg as a substitute,” Jericho explained. “What are you gonna do, right? ‘It’s his ice cream stand,’ as Pat [Patterson] used to say. So, I used to be just a little bit disillusioned cause it could’ve been cool however the story was still amazing.”
In case you use any of the quotes in this text, please credit “Busted Open Radio” and supply a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.